Expanding the Ring-Pass-Not

By Joseph John (JJ) DeweySpiritual Teacher & Author Of The Immortal Series

A friend of mine gave a good answer to the definition of a ring-pass-not. I will repeat it here:

"My understanding is that, at the human level, it is a level of attainment beyond which a person cannot go; a stage in a person's growth from which he or she is unable to pass onto a higher stage because of some inhibiting factor in his or her make up, usually a mental or spiritual delusion. However, it can be applied to all levels of creation from sub-atomic matter to the Planetary and Solar Logos and even the Creator itself.

"We all have our ring-pass-not. In most humans, it is the level of the mental body which extends well beyond the physical and enables them to operate at the lower mental levels. Soul contact would extend the ring-pass-not and allow activity on the higher mental levels."

JJ:

In other words, the ring-pass-not is the highest point that your consciousness can perceive; the highest point that you can make a real decision. If a thing is beyond your "ring pass not" then you either cannot believe the thing is possible, cannot understand it or just cannot conceive of its reality.

If you cannot make a believable decision to live to be 100 then that decision is beyond your ring-pass-not.

Jesus spoke the truth when he said that "nothing is impossible to him that believeth..." but to make the impossible come true the ring-pass-not must be expanded.

If we all examine our lives, (or perhaps we should examine the lives of others -- they are easier to see correctly) we will see that our ring-pass-not in some areas may be fairly high and in other areas may be fairly low.

For instance, one person may understand many beautiful metaphysical principles yet his ring-pass-not in the real world makes it difficult to pay the bills. How to create abundance for himself is beyond his consciousness, but mystical things are not.

We must work to round out our ring-pass-not so the orbit is circular rather than elliptical.

When we expand our ring-pass-not many things become possible that were previously impossible.

There is a difference between expanding your ring-pass-not and your belief system. A belief that you can walk through a wall you does not give you the power to do it. But if your ring-pass-not is expanded into this consciousness, then you will realize this power is possible and you can attain it if you desire.

The mere belief in the possibility has little power but is a good starting point to expand your ring-pass-not if illusion is dispelled along the way.

If one wants to accomplish beyond the norm he must not only believe but also make a decision within his ring of consciousness.

Belief, even in something true, if it is mired in glamour and illusion, can become a millstone around the neck.

Question: What is the difference between one who believes he will live to be 100, but will not, and another whose ring-pass-not has expanded so he can really make this happen?

One may ask why the term we are discussing is called the ring-pass-not? Why not consciousness-pass-not or some other phrase?

The reason is that expansion in consciousness is best represented as circular waves like that of an orbit of a planet around the sun. If we use this correlation then the ring-pass-not of the earth is 93 million miles from the Sun. In its present state this planet just cannot expand its orbit beyond this point.

All planets do not have an exact circular orbit. Some are close to circular and some, like Pluto, are somewhat elliptical. Because of this Pluto is sometimes the furthest planet from the Sun and other times Neptune is.

Consciousness is best described as circular because it is divided into seven general areas corresponding to the Seven Rays. If one expands consciousness evenly in these seven directions then your consciousness ring-pass-not is seen as circular, but if your development is lopsided then your ring-pass-not is seen as elliptical. If your ring-pass-not is too lopsided then cause and effect will force you to work on your greatest weakness so your orbit can go back to the circle again.

The ring-pass-not does not apply to humans only but all forms of life from the atomic to the Solar and beyond.

That which lies beyond our ring-pass-not is a freedom or a door to greater freedom that is beyond the present ability of our consciousness and intelligence to grasp and incorporate into our reality.

This is perhaps easier to understand if we examine the animal kingdom below us. There are freedoms that are beyond their ring of consciousness that seem ridiculously simple to us. Take a dog, for instance. Tie him up to a post on a long leash and in a short while he will run around the post wrapping the leash around it as he goes. Then after the leash is entirely wrapped and there are only inches left the dog will continue forward almost choking himself. Even though it seems simple to us it is beyond his consciousness to go backwards instead of forwards and unwind the leash so he has greater freedom.

The ring-pass-not in an animal prevents him from considering going backward to greater freedom.

A dog may go through a door if all he has to do is push ahead, but it is beyond his consciousness to consider turning a door handle unless he has been extensively trained by a human.

On the other hand, a chicken has a lower ring-pass-not than a dog. The dog has a sense of loyalty to a human owner, but this concept is beyond the ring-pass-not of the fowl. It seems to the chicken that loyalty to humans would bring less freedom not more, but the dog realizes that loyalty to the human will somehow lead to greater freedom and expression.

To the dog the humans are Gods to be loved, but to the chicken we are overlords to be feared.

To us normal humans there are possible powers that are beyond our ring-pass-not that could be quite simple if we had higher knowledge.

Some of these are:

The power to live without food and water for extended periods of time.

The power to shift in and out of this world and the next.

The power to become invisible.

The power to perform miraculous healings.

The power to manifest a body at will through the power of Decision-Attention-Consciousness.

The power of telepathy.

The power of omnipresence.

The access to all knowledge, and many others.

We must understand our own ring-pass-not, or our own limitations, and we all have them whether we be a slug, a human or a God. All lives in the universe must find their limitations before they can become unlimited. If our limitations are not discovered, or known by us, then our limitations will find us and reveal themselves to us and embarrass us and sometimes cause great pain.

Within our ring-pass-not we have power to create our own reality. We either create our own reality or allow someone else to do it for us. There are decisions made from outside our ring-pass-not that effect our realty over which we have no control. The best thing to do with these influences is to accept them once we learn what the program is.

There are many truths beyond our ring-pass-not that we are unprepared for and would be devastating for us to prematurely learn.

Even so, most of us are truly seeking our next level of truth and there is indeed joy in discovery when we are ready and seeking.

When the ring-pass-not is increased, the human consciousness grows into it and uses the increase of power in ways never dreamed of in the past.

In ancient times it would have been considered evil to even think of disobeying the tribal leader, for the member of the tribe had no concept of what it would be like living outside the authority of the tribe and making his own decision to influence his destiny. Now in this age as our ring-pass-not has expanded, our view of good and evil have also moved to higher place. Today the closest thing to an ancient tribe would be a cult and a cult that is tightly controlled by a leader who makes all personal decisions for members is considered evil. Controlling your own evolution and destiny is today considered good.

To see the principle of freedom playing itself out you must find the ring-pass-not for humanity, your country, your group, your family and yourself.

Let us say that a hypnotist tells a subject that his legs are useless and he cannot walk. If the subject accepts this suggestion then his ring-pass-not does not include walking. The possibility does not even enter into his consciousness. Let us say that a few days pass and he discovers the truth of the terrible suggestion. What happens? Suddenly his ring-pass-not expands and he walks. The sphere of his power of decision has now greatly increased over what it was when he was deceived, for now he can make decisions concerning all areas of his life that includes walking.

He discovered the truth and the truth set him free -- to a greater sphere of freedom.

In his state of deception he could have cared less if someone sought to impose rules and restrictions on walking for it would not have affected freedom as he knew it. But now he can walk, any attempt to restrict him from doing this wonderful exercise would be considered an infringement of the highest degree.

Before his ring-pass-not expanded he had no idea that he even could exercise the power of free will in the arena of walking.

Even so it is with us.

There are many things that we can do that we do not do. Either the idea has not even entered our consciousness or we are just mesmerized into believing that we are powerless. Our freedoms are within our ring-pass-not and it does not even enter into our heads to look beyond the ring. We do not usually even look beyond the ring until we enter a point of tension. A crisis of some kind will often force us to look outside the ring for answers.

One of the best examples of the limitations of the ring-pass-not is the story of Magellan's ships.

Apparently, Magellan's fleet of high-sailed ships would sail into the bays of primitive islands and the natives would be extremely fearful upon seeing the great vessels which were far greater than anything they could conceive of building. It would take some time for them to get used to both the ships and strange men but eventually, they would lose their fear and accept what their eyes showed them.

But on one occasion, the fleet pulled into a bay and to the surprise of all the explorers, the natives took no notice of them whatsoever. They simply went about their normal activities as it the fleet wasn't there. It wasn't until the crew got into smaller boats and came in closer that the natives reacted -- and with even greater terror than their neighbors. They ran screaming into the island's interior and it took weeks and numerous search parties to find them and reassure them that they were safe. But here's the crux of the story. When the crew finally calmed them and learnt enough of their language to communicate with them they found that these particular people didn't react to the boats because they couldn't actually see them! The ships were so far beyond their consciousness that they were literally blind to them.

In other words, the great ships were beyond the ring-pass-not of the natives, for it was beyond that which they could have even imagined as existing in their world.

It makes you wonder what may be lying plainly before us to which we may be blinded.